By Niall Gartland

PROMOTION to Division One is a huge target for Teemore, but their manager Barry Owens says that they still have one eye on their looming championship campaign.

Owens was the side’s player-manager for a number of years but is staying firmly put behind the sideline after recently making the decision to retire.

One of the true legends of Fermanagh football, he underwent open heart surgery as a player back in 2008 and needed a recent operation to get a valve repaired (the surgeon informed him back in 2008 that he’d need another operation roughly 15 years down the line, in case you’re wondering).

That informed his decision to call it quits at the age of 40, but he’s still fully invested in the squad and they’re having a solid league campaign to date, winning their last four matches after an opening day slip-up against Tempo.

A late free from Eoin McManus got them over the line in an antsy one-point victory over Lisnaskea last Friday, but Owens was pleased by the resilence of his side.

“You need that character to be able to grind out a victory when you’re not playing well. Lisnaskea will probably feel it’s a missed opportunity as they missed chances in the first 40 minutes or so of the game. We ground out the result and it’s a great asset when you have someone like Eoin who’s well-able to put over 45-metre frees.”

The Shamrocks have a nice blend of youth and experience and have two lads on the intercounty panel at present (goalkeeper Sean McNally and Ronan McCaffrey). They’ve come through a couple of relegation battles to maintain their senior championship in recent years, but it’s worth noting that they reached the senior championship semi-final two years ago, losing to eventual winners Ederney. They’re top of the roll of honour list in Fermanagh and that’s something Owens and the club are fiercely proud of.

Owens says there’s a big ’emphasis’ on achieving promotion but by no means does the championship take a backseat.

“After the disappointment of last year there’s a big emphasis on achieving promotion, but when you come from Teemore, the championship is still number one. We’ve the most titles of any club in Fermanagh and we’re very proud of that. We always feel we’ve a good enough team to compete, there’s a lot of strong teams but we feel we’re not out of place.”

He also says he isn’t particularly enthused about the move to a round robin format this year (there will be two groups of four in the senior championship).

“We’ll be in a group alongside whoever finishes top in Division One alongside whoever finishes fourth or fifth so we’re keeping an eye on who we might get.

“My own view is that championship should be knock-out and that the best team wins on the day. The new format gives a chance for stronger teams to regroup so the shock factor has gone out of it.”